October 15, 2016

Meet Fashion Photographer Irida Mete

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Irida Mete.

Irida, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Well, drawing was my very first love. In high school, I ended up taking an art class that included drawing, graphic design and a little bit of photography. By complete accident, I started getting into photography all because of how much I loved playing with Photoshop.

After graduating high school, I knew I wouldn’t be able to really learn photography unless I went out and did it through trial and error. I decided to go to College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit to study Graphic Design. I knew I didn’t want to stop photography so I had to make something happen, and I did.

I slowly got into the photography world, and people started seeing and enjoying my work – so I finally started taking it seriously. It started from taking my best friends pictures, helping aspiring models build their portfolios, to shooting for smaller brands all around Michigan. It was fun, and then it became a business. It was an insane feeling knowing I could do something I love so much and actually get paid for it.

During my studies at CCS, my mind would constantly be on what projects I want to shoot next, or I would go to the school store just to take a few minutes to look at their incredible magazine selection – it easily became a routine. I found it super hard to focus on school work, but I never stopped being determined to finish.

After I graduated and after I had basically worked with everyone I wanted to work within Michigan, I realized I needed to do more. It felt natural to me that I moved somewhere else more and better opportunities. And that’s why I made the move out to LA. Since being out here, I have worked with a lot of modeling agencies here and working on building those relationships. I also am still taking up smaller jobs here and there. I’ve been out here only a total of 7 months, so far so good!

Has it been a smooth road?
I think in trying to be a part of such a big industry, there will always be hardships and I don’t think it’ll always be a smooth road. But I am also okay with that because that plays a big role in pushing and motivating me as an artist.

Some struggles in LA are basically starting all over (building relationships) and making a name for myself here. I see so many photographers here who have such a similar look, I just want to make sure my work is the work I want to be making. A huge struggle is finding a creative TEAM to rely on. I’ve always had such a hard time finding a stylist, specifically, and that’s obviously really important for my work.

Tell us about your childhood, what were you like growing up?
I was born in Albania, and all of the kids in the neighborhood would be outside 24/7, including myself. With so much time on our hands, we got pretty creative as kids. From taking turns singing in my dad’s van, to hanging a rope to substitute for a volleyball net, to creating an imaginary runway, to doing pageant competitions, we became quite the creative and fun group of friends.

I was that quiet little girl, who would always smile but sometimes had a pretty bad short temper too. (Haha)

Growing up, I became less quiet and more comfortable and creative in everything I did. My interests in art only grew as I got older. I got into drawing when I was in middle school – and persuaded my dad to buy me these (not so cheap) drawing lessons. My dad being my dad, he agreed to it and with time I only got better and better – so much so that in high school everyone knew me as the “artist”.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory has got to be the day I grabbed all of my friends and went in my dad’s van to pretend we were performing. When it was my turn, I got up and sang an Albanian song and I must say… I was kind of good. I loved this day not only because it was a cute and fun but because I loved being able to bring all of my friends together and perform what we were best at. So so cute, right?

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My plans for the future are to shoot a lot more, experiment and work with more creatives. I plan on traveling for work, specifically New York & London in the near future. Eventually, I’d like to go back to Albania for some projects in order to bring back some of my roots into my work.

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